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SHAULI EINAV QUARTET

HIS SAXOPHONE, PERHAPS A LITTLE MORE COMPLICATED THAN HE ORIGINALLY THOUGHT WHEN STARTING OUT, IS PLAYED WITH BEAUTY, VIRTUOSITY AND DARING

Intro

Releases

Shauli EInav

Tenor & soprano saxophones

Paul Lay

piano, Fender Rhodes

Florent Nisse

Double bass

Gautier Garrigue

Drums

Pierre Durand

Guitar 76 San Gabriel

“I
always had a good feeling about the saxophone”, explains Shauli Einav. “I
liked the shape of it; much cooler than a violin or something like that - like
a machine. It didn’t seem too complicated at first, so I stuck with it.”
Still at school in Israel, Shauli would go to Jazz festivals with his older
brother and sister during the summer vacations. He bought an album by the
saxophonist George Coleman, in a record store in Tel Aviv, before one of the
festivals; then discovered Charlie Parker and never looked back.

Israel
has a strong tradition of music education, which has laid the foundation for an
impressive wave of Jazz musicians to which Shauli Einav now very firmly
belongs. “I was playing and playing at boarding school, as much as I could
and at some point, in 1998, I went to a music camp with a lot of other talented
young musicians.”

After
the camp he met the Brooklyn born Jazz saxophonist Arnie Lawrence Finkelstein
who had come to Israel a year earlier. Arnie Lawrence, as he was known, had
worked a double bill, opening for John Coltrane and played with such greats as
Charles Mingus. For Shauli, Arnie Lawrence was, “… a visionary person. He
wanted to bring peace between the people, through music. Arab musicians and
Jewish musicians would play together. Arnie was really the link between New
York and Jerusalem, for me and for many, many young musicians. Almost all of
the successful Israeli musicians today, had some connection with Arnie.”

Shauli Einav
finished his first degree in Israel, but as with so many Israeli Jazz musicians
continued his studies in the United States, in Shauli’s case in Rochester,
upstate New York, but would take every opportunity to go to concerts in New
York City where he later lived.

“In the
first two years that I was in New York, I went constantly every night to the
jam-sessions to hear, to listen and to throw myself into the water - even
without practising. Just being among those great musicians and having direct
contact, talking, hearing, was an invaluable experience.” On the question
of why so many Israelis have been successful in the New York Jazz scene, Shauli
explains: “Israelis tend to be very passionate and try to excel in
everything that they do, to a level that I’m not sure is healthy but this is
how it is.”

For
inspiration Shauli Einav he has dipped into classical music – in this case
‘Visions Fugitive’ by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. “I love his
music,” says Shauli. “The melodies are so dissonant, with much use of
dissonant intervals and unexpected harmonies. He makes them so digestible, with
great rhythm and great harmony. Even if you hear Peter and the Wolf, the
melodies are quite dissonant, but it sounds so singable, because he is a genius.”

Asaf Mattijahu, a classically trained
composer with his own improvisation theatre group, has been Shauli’s close
collaborator on this album based largely on Prokofiev’s short, whimsical, effervescent
piano pieces.

Shauli
describes the creative process as follows: “In this new album I played with
Prokofiev’s motifs, until I got an idea for a new tune. I would randomly chose
notes and put them in the bass line. On these bass notes, I would add the
harmony. The harmony makes sense. The bass notes do not make sense. My
challenge was to create an atonal bass line with harmony that works above it
then a melody that embellishes it. I find it a very interesting process.
Most composers take from each other. We tried to stop looking at it as a Jazz
composition, even though you have the walking bass, the chords played by the
piano, the sax - the solo and the drums - the rhythm. We tried to orchestrate
it differently. Asaf was next to me and guiding me. You can hear it in this new
music.”

The
track Ten Weeks is about, “…the whole process of waiting for a baby
and knowing that he is being created. It’s kind of mysterious and magical and
scary at the same time. That was on my mind. I just manipulated it.” As if
in confirmation, Shauli’s son, now a toddler, clamours for attention in the
background during the interview for this article.

In 1415
the motifs of the No. 14 and No. 15 miniatures by Prokofiev are made into a
Jazz swing piece. Assai is from Assai moderato, No. 12. Shauli
starts with the original chords and harmonic rhythm and develops them with
different orchestration. “The bass,” he explains, “is playing very,
very high notes. The piano is in the background and the melody is just between
them. But the first thing that you hear is the high screaming bass, playing
that motif, over and over. The harmonies are really intensive, but they are
being softened by the repeated rhythm of the bass.

Tao
Main is an anagram of Animato, No. 4 in ‘Visions
Fugitive’. “I take two bars from Animato. It’s quite a fun, polyrhythmic
tune. It breaks down into different unexpected sections. We are improvising not
on the chords, but on the rhythm.” 76 San Gabriel is dedicated to an
old friend who died a few years ago - a lament for him.

Shauli
Einav now lives with his family in Paris. His saxophone, perhaps a little more
complicated than he originally thought when starting out, is played with
beauty, virtuosity and daring.